Sunday, April 14, 2013

United States Of Corruption

I was reading about North Korea. One thing I found out is that it is officially the worlds most corrupt country.

Here's a corruption map of the world. Green is where you want to be. I guess the U.S. is yellow because it means caution. President Obama has called the struggle against corruption “one of the great struggles of our time.” I am not sure if he's winning the struggle. Remember when he went back on his promise of no lobbyists in his administration? In Russia corruption is a way of life. If you look at all those red and dark red countries it's a way of life there too. With the passing of Citizens United, corruption in this country got a get out of jail free card. I found This article, a CIA agent states "that corruption is rampant among
government officials in the United States, and that Congressmen are
misappropriating funds earmarked for Afghanistan’s reconstruction" The thing is, I am not sure misappropriation of funds is only going on in and for Afghanistan.I wonder what level of government isn't overrun with corruption? Many lobbies are an employment program for the husbands or wives, sons or daughters of government officials. "But Harry Reid is
in a class by himself. One of his sons and his son-in-law lobby
in Washington for companies, trade groups and municipalities
seeking Reid's help in the Senate. A second son has lobbied in
Nevada for some of those same interests, and a third has represented
a couple of them as a litigator."Proving that there is no difference between parties, check this out, "Tom DeLay's wife,
Christine DeLay, and daughter, Dani DeLay Ferro, received more
than $500,000 from DeLay's national political action committee,
AMPAC, his House campaign committees, and the closely aligned
Texans for a Republican Majority. DeLay's wife made over $4,000
a month from AMPAC. His daughter also got a sweet chunk of the
pie. Since 2003, she received over $3,500 each month from DeLay's
national political action committee, AMPAC. Through her consulting
firm, she also raked in $222,000 in fees from DeLay's House campaign
committees. - Progress Report 2/05Nothing about nepotism or cronyism is new.George W. named the wife
of Sen. Mitch
McConnell (R-Ky) as his labor secretary. I guess these examples are just one aspect of government corruption. So we all know that government officials and their families are doing very well and not feeling the economic pressure most Americans are dealing with now, this is why I think we may be on the way to a situation like North Korea regarding corruption. The people of North Korea starve while the leaders concentrate on military pursuits. This sounds eerily familiar to me. It scares me to think things could get that bad here. This is one of the reasons that our social programs are so necessary.

Corruption undermines our society. What I think about is the unemployment situation in my own country that is not being addressed, which in turn is causing widespread poverty. Even if you are working you can still be in poverty. What is saving us now are food stamps and other social programs. However hunger exists for over 50 million Americans. I heard on N.P.R. the other day that the Chinese call Kim Jong Un "The Third Fattie". Meaning, that the dictators in North Korea have all been overweight. Meanwhile, starvation is driving North Koreans so insane they have been eating their own children. The Cannibals of North KoreaThere is talk that North Korea is collapsing, may be that is why all this nuclear bullshit is going on. Everyone can look at that instead of why this "Dear Leader" isn't helping his own people. It's really appalling. I personally think that this is where we are headed if our leaders get their way and cut off all social programs. They just do not care what is happening to the majority of Americans. Corruption is everywhere, the banking system, corporations, lobbies, it is pervasive on so many levels. This situation, I am sure is nothing new, but it just seems like it's getting worse and it's taken for granted, like in Russia, that it's just the way it is. While North Korea may be the most corrupt country in the world, it looks like this may be the way we're headed.

4 comments:

The first thing we need to do is set term limits for those elected to Congress. I say a total of eight years maximum or both being in the House and the Senate and reduce Senate terms back to four years. And, then we have to stop the lobbyist and the money flow.Pat, what we have going on in Washington amounts to legalized bribery. You and me would be in federal prison for what these people do with no fear what-so-ever or prosecution.We need patriots that will shun the money from the pimp ass lobbyists and refuse to be their whores and instead do the work of We The People. But, look at the money people spend to get elected to Congress. They know a gravy train when they see it!

The money and time on the Hill is the source of the corruption in America.

Comparing the United States to Third World countries, and ex-Soviet bloc countries, gets us off the hook, corruption-wise. Makes us seem better than we are. But look, we're more corrupt than Canada, Australia, Sweden, and Finland, countries with stronger social programs. Very telling.

I know that it's been going on for a long time, but what's so scary now is that it is blatant and they don't care that everyone see's it. This used to be a great country, the people elected used to be public servants, now they are all greedy bastards on the take. They shouldn't be getting a salary, because they hardly work! Here's an article that explains that they have 239 days off this year. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kenneth-d-ackerman/congress-calendar_b_2219870.htmlI am definitely in the wrong business.